NEW YORK, Feb. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Forest Laboratories, Inc. announced today that following the completion of two recently announced in-licensing transactions during the quarter, it has revised its guidance for research and development spending for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2006. As previously announced, Forest made an upfront payment of $75 million to Mylan Laboratories Inc. under an agreement for the commercialization, development and distribution of Mylan's novel beta blocker nebivolol in the United States and Canada. Forest also made an upfront payment of $50 million to Replidyne, Inc. under the previously announced agreement for the commercialization, development and distribution of Replidyne's new oral antibiotic, faropenem medoxomil, in the United States. The Company will expense both payments during the current quarter as research and development since neither product has yet received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. This will increase projected research and development expense from $280 million to $405 million for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2006 resulting in a corresponding reduction of $0.29 in earnings per share in the Company's fiscal fourth quarter and fiscal year ending March 31, 2006. The Company has not updated any other component of its previously issued guidance.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20001011/FORESTLOGO )
Except for the historical information contained herein, this release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Because these statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, actual future results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to the difficulty of predicting FDA approvals, acceptance and demand for new pharmaceutical products, the impact of competitive products and pricing, the timely development and launch of new products and the risk factors listed from time to time in both companies' SEC reports, including their Annual Reports on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005 and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the periods ended June 30, 2005, September 30, 2005 and December 31, 2005.
Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20001011/FORESTLOGOForest Laboratories, Inc.CONTACT: Charles E. Triano, Vice President-Investor Relations of ForestLaboratories, Inc., +1-212-224-6714
Web site: http://www.frx.com/
